Wednesday, April 27, 2011

The attached YouTube video shows how 541 Taliban prisoners escaped through a long tunnel in Afghanistan's largest prison located in Kandahar city Monday night.

It took the inmates over five months to dig a 305-meter (1,000-foot) long tunnel.

A report by the Daily Beast said the majority of those who escaped were Taliban insurgents including 100 commanders.

In a statement released by the Taliban, it said, "The tunnel has reached its target last night from where the prisoner Mujahadeen was led away through the escape route by three previously informed inmates..."

Officials said the prisoners where awakened one by one. All the escapees crawled in to the whole length of the dark tunnel the length of four football fields, the ABC News video said.

The breakout began at 23:00 Monday and ended at 3:30 the following day freeing all 541 prisoners. That is equivalent to two prisoners able to escape for every minute.

The video continued to say that the jailbreak was only reported four hours until after the prisoners had escaped, which leads to suspicions that the prison guards knew what was happening.

Afghan president Hamid Karzai said, "This is a blow."

The government called the breach a disaster. It raised the question the gains made against Taliban forces in Kandahar province and whether the military can sustain the progress over the insurgents once NATO troops begin to reduce their presence this summer, said NY Times.

Some fear that the prison break will strengthen the Taliban forces once the spring season fighting begins.

This escape is not the biggest in the 1,200-prison's record. During a Taliban attack in 2008, 900 prisoners were freed.